


A Winter Cold

by Beleriandings



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Childhood, Family, Foreshadowing, Found Family, Gen, Grief, these children need a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 20:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5798638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Al catches a cold, and Ed argues with Izumi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Winter Cold

“Brother, that’s enough blankets” protested Al, peering up from within the layers of wool. He sneezed. “I’ll be fine, I promise. I don’t even need to stay in bed…” he belied his words by sneezing loudly, before breaking into coughs. “It’s only a winter cold, and Sensei said we should be practicing…”

“You’ve got a fever” said Ed, placing a hand on his brother’s forehead, pushing him back down into the pillows at the same time.

“No I haven’t!”

“You want to take the risk?” There was an edge to Ed’s voice, an edge of fear and anger, Al thought. He was just about to say more, when the door burst open.

“Now, my useless pupils, what are you doing still in bed? I thought at least by now I’d managed to knock some of the laziness out of you, but it seems - ”

Ed was frowning, his hands balled into fists, but before Izumi could get any further he whirled around to face her. “Al’s sick!” he burst out, turning to face their teacher, squaring his shoulders as he glared up into her frowning face with defiance in his eyes. “I'm… I’m staying here with him today.”

Izumi’s frown deepened. “Alphonse, if you’re sick you can stay in bed. Edward, you have no excuse. Back to your books, and your exercises.”

Al thought that Ed would relent then, but he shook his head, folding his arms and sitting down on the bed. “He’s sick. I’m staying with him.”

“It’s just a cold” said Al, trying to burrow deeper beneath the blankets now. He didn’t understand why Ed was being so stubborn. “It’s not so bad. I can… ah…. aaaahhh…” he sneezed painfully once more, before looking back up at the two of them, wiping his watering eyes. “i’m sorry Sensei. Maybe brother can… um… teach me what he learns today?”

Izumi opened her mouth to answer, but before she could speak Ed was talking over her, once again. “No. I'm… I’m staying here.” He nearly lost his nerve then, Al thought, glancing away for just a moment as anger gathered in their teacher’s face like storm clouds. But then he drew himself up to his full height once more, planting his feet squarely. “I’m not leaving him until he’s better!”

“I’m already letting the two of you off sparring practice for the day. But I expect you to do your reading, and don’t think I won’t be testing you on chapter eight of _Elements of the Alchemist’s Array_ …”

“I _know_ how to draw transmutation circles” grumbled Ed.

“That’s not good enough. You need to prove to me that you’ve learned something, before you can progress.”

Rolling his eyes, Ed dug in his pocket and pulled out a broken stick of chalk. Then he dropped to his knees and began to draw a transmutation circle on the floor, filling in the details quickly, more clumsily than the usual meticulous care he paid the task. The chalk screeched unpleasantly against the polished wooden floorboards, and Al winced. He frowned, craning over the side of the bed, trying to see, but before he could make out the purpose of the circle, Ed was slamming his palms down on it, with unnecessary force. Immediately a waist-high wall sprang up around the bed, separating the two of them from Izumi. Angrily, Ed turned and sat down with his back to the wall, folding his arms and glowering.

Al cringed slightly, watching as Izumi sighed in exasperation, clapping her hands together and placing them on the top of the wall, which instantly receded back into the floor. “Your technique is poor.” Her voice was hard-edged, unsympathetic. She picked up Ed by the collar, and set him - struggling and squirming - on his feet again, facing her once more, then glared back down at him. “You think you can be an alchemist with that attitude? Don’t think whatever talent you might have will get you far in this world on its own. You have to work for it…”

“He knows that” put in Al hastily, his voice rasping a little. “We both know that. Brother, go and do your lessons. Please?”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Why not? I’ll still be here when you get back. I’ll just sleep, I’ll get better…”

There were tears glinting at the corners of his brother’s eyes now, Al saw in shock. “Mom didn’t!”

Silence fell in the room, a heavy, uncomfortable silence. Izumi looked as though she had been about to speak, her mouth slightly open, as the anger fell immediately from her face.

“She was sick too” said Ed forcefully, his voice cracking. “This was how it started, she got sick, she had a fever…”

“Ed…”

“And then she died, and _he_ left her behind, and us, and maybe if he’d been there…”

“Brother, stop it…”

“Al is not going to die” cut in Izumi quietly, as Al flinched at his brother’s words. “No one’s going to die. Al, you’re going to be fine. I promise.”

He nodded. “Brother, it’s just a cold…” he tailed off as he saw the tears rolling down his brother’s face, wiped roughly away before their teacher could see them. But Al thought she had anyway; besides, there was no missing the tension in Ed’s stance, his gritted teeth, the catch in his voice.

Izumi sighed, folding her arms. “Alright. Ed, you can stay here if you like, but if you catch your brother’s chill then don’t come crying to me. And I still expect you to do your reading, and then you have to teach Al what you have learned. Understood?”

Ed looked up at her for a moment, their eyes meeting, and then he dropped his gaze once more, nodding. “Yes. Understood, Sensei.”

“Good” said Izumi, briskly. “Alphonse, rest for now. You can’t learn any alchemy - or anything much at all - while you’re sick. Rest and recover.” She laid a gentle hand on his forehead, testing his temperature. The motion reminded him of their mother a little, sending a stab of pain through him, but he said nothing. “You don’t seem to have a fever, but I will bring a thermometer to check” she said. “Would you like some hot milk?”

Al smiled tentatively. “Yes, please!”

“Ed, can you bring him some? I have to go and help Sig in the shop… oh don’t look like that, I’m not asking you to drink the milk yourself, although while we’re on the subject…”

Al felt himself smiling wider as his brother protested loudly.

Al had drifted into sleep not long after that, secure in the warm wrappings of his blankets, lulled by the rustle of turning pages as Ed read in the chair beside the bed.

When he awoke, it was to a flicker of movement, which made him start up for just a moment. Ed was pacing backwards and forwards, aiming a punch at the back of the armchair every time he passed it; he was apparently so absorbed that it took him a moment to notice that Al was awake again. When he did, he frowned, coming to an abrupt halt. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No.”

“How do you feel?”

Al considered this, stretching his shoulders. His head still ached, his throat burned, but perhaps somewhat less than before. “A little better.” he looked around the room. The floor seemed to be strewn with sheets of paper, where it had been clear before. “You know, you didn’t have to stay here, brother. It must have been boring watching me sleep all that time.”

Ed shrugged. “It was only a few hours. I even did my reading.”

Al peered around the room curiously, trying to make out what was written on the papers that littered the floor, some of them crumpled in obvious frustration. “And what else?”

“Plans” said Ed, smiling. “I reckon when we’re finished our training, when we go back home to Resembool, we’ll be ready. We’ll be strong enough to try to bring Mom back, we’ll know enough to be sure of our calculations, we’ll have had enough practice…”

“We won’t have practiced _human_ transmutation though!” protested Al, dropping his voice instinctively to a whisper. “Sensei would never teach us that, not ever!”

“Well we can just figure it out on our own” said Ed, smiling in sudden excitement. “That was how it would have been anyway, if we had never met her, right? The two of us together can do it, I know we can!”

Al nodded, hesitantly. “Brother… about before. I know it’s four years to the day today since Mom…”

Ed’s shoulders slumped. “You realised too, huh?”

“Yeah. And that’s why you're…”

“Yeah.”

There was a short silence.

“We just need to get it over with” said Ed, after a while. “The sooner we finish our training and go back home, the sooner we can see Mom again.”

“Yeah” said Al, another pang of loss going through him at the thought of their mother. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I’m sorry” said Ed quietly. “About before. I didn’t mean to scare you, making you think something would happen to you…” he took a deep shuddering breath, then balled his hands into fists. “I was just… well, I won’t _let_ anything happen to you, Al. I promise.”

Al blinked, in some surprise at this outburst. Then he smiled, clearing his throat. “I know, brother. I know.”

Ed looked back at him, and for a moment they smiled at each other. Then the silence was broken by Ed sneezing explosively.

“Oh no, you’re getting it too! Sensei even warned you you’d catch it.”

Ed rolled his eyes, stifling a cough, though he smiled. “Don’t remind me.”


End file.
